Video shot by a member of the Spanish musical group Amparanoia shows the smoke and flames of a forest fire blocking the motorway 49 miles south of the city of Ourense in northern Spain.
The video, shot Aug. 3, shows the band being forced to stop as flames licked across the roadway. Band members are shouting, “Stop, back up quickly!” to the driver.
Spanish police managed to evacuate the band members very quickly from the affected area.
The fire was still burning near Verin, in northern Spain, on Aug. 4. Its intensity has forced emergency crews to seal off highways in the area.
Firefighters worked overnight and continued to battle the blaze with 22 squads, 12 helicopters and 4 airplanes.
Spain’s Military Emergency Unit (UME) is also providing support with 112 firefighters and 26 vehicles, the Defense Ministry said.
The flames have consumed some 2,965 acres since the fire started on Thursday afternoon.
The regional head of rural development, Ángeles Vázquez, told EFE.com, “It began in a perfect area for it to spread a lot, on a slope and exposed to the wind in a zone, furthermore, full of impressive areas of reforested pine and chestnut trees.”
Dry weather and high heat have created perfect conditions for wildfires in southern France, Spain, and Portugal.
Fires in southern Spain in June forced the evacuation of a thousand people, and another in late July burned 4 square miles in two days and forced hundreds more from their homes.
Fires near France’s famous Côte d’Azur tourist beaches forced the evacuations of some 10,000 in late July, while forest fires in central Portugal forced thousands more to flee their homes.
A fire Portugal’s Pedrógão Grande area in June killed 64 people. Many of those were killed as they attempted to flee the fire in their cars.
